Like many writers, I feel centered when I write, or it might be better to say, when I don’t write, when I can’t write for whatever reason, I feel, frankly, de-stabilized. It’s dangerous for me not to write.
—
Sigrid Nunez
Matt Damon: Good Will Hunting by Mark Magill
- Elizabeth Murray by Jessica Hagedorn
- Kerry James Marshall by Calvin Reid
- Michael Winterbottom by Liza Béar
- Wong Kar-wai by Han Ong
- Anthony Hecht by Daniel Anderson
- Olu Dara by Tracie Morris
- Martin Sherman by Sander Hicks
- Philip Kan Gotanda by David Henry Hwang
Interviews
- When Words Fail by David Clarkson
- Jason Rhoades by Saul Ostrow
- Matt Damon: Good Will Hunting by Mark Magill
- Carl Palazzolo: A Personal History of Italian Film by Betsy Sussler
Artists on Artists
- Randy Bradley by Jake Bohstedt
- Two Poems by Laura Mullen
- Dump by Padgett Powell
- Musuh Dalam Selimut: The Enemies in the Blanket by Lawrence Chua
- The Fiery Pantheon by Nancy Lemann
- Excerpt from Jack Maggs by Peter Carey
- A Widow’s Lament by Rade Panich
First Proof
- Frank Bidart: Desire by Robert Polito
- Javier Marías’s A Heart So White by Minna Proctor
- Helen Gee’s Limelight by Marvin Heiferman
- Lynne Tillman’s No Lease on Life by Betsy Sussler
- Susan Yankowitz’s Phaedra in Delirium by Elana Greenfield
- Zhang Yimou’s Keep Cool by Larry Gross
- Johan Grimonprez’s dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y by Mimi Thompson
- Jeanette Barron and Timothy O’Grady by Suzan Sheman
- Adam Ross by Shirley Kaneda
- Michael Jensen by Rone Shavers
- Michael Reafsnyder by David Pagel
- Rivka Rinn by Roberto Juarez
- Jon Brion by Lance Loud
- Rickie Lee Jones’ Ghostyhead by Hilton Als
- Maria Flook’s My Sister Life by Amy Hempel
Editor's Choice
Matt Damon. Courtesy of Miramax Films.
Matt Damon is not the kind of guy who needs any help. His few film roles have gone largely unheralded by the wider world, but he’s caught the eye of Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg. He stars as a crusading lawyer for Coppola in John Grisham’s upcoming The Rainmaker and he’s playing the title role of Spielberg’s World War II drama Saving Private Ryan, currently shooting in England. Prior to this, Damon gave a haunting performance as Ilario, a conscience-racked soldier in last year’s Courage Under Fire, and Tommy Lee Jones directed him in The Good Old Boys for TNT.
Sounds like the usual Hollywood stairway to the stars. But more interesting is that Damon has co-written a solidly good script with his friend and fellow actor Ben Affleck. Called Good Will Hunting, it was directed by Gus Van Sant for Miramax and is due to be released this month. Damon and Affleck star in the film together with Robin Williams and Minnie Driver, with Damon giving a first-rate performance in the title role of Will, an exceedingly bright and troubled guy from the wrong side of the tracks, the tracks in this case being Boston’s South Side.
Damon and Affleck made their deal with Miramax contingent on their playing the roles they wrote, a bootstrap kind of move that should warm the hearts of writers and actors who suspect their own agents might be guilty of more snoozing than schmoozing.
—Mark Magill
Related
“Freedom and bondage I find interesting. Or purity—and a contrast to that purity.”
“You’re looking at the human inverse of a technological idea.”
Originally published in
BOMB 62,
Winter 1998
Featuring interviews with Elizabeth Murray, Kerry James Marshall, Anthony Hecht, Michael Winterbottom, Liza Bear, Wong Kar-Wai, Olu Dara, Martin Sherman, and Philip Kan Gotanda.
